Hi - I am looking for a breastpumping recipe in order to start to build up a supply in the freezer for when I return to work. Does anyone know of one of these? Thanks.
Thanks everyone - I called the lactation consultant line at our hospital and found out that the massive amount of peanut m&m's I've been eating lately might well be the cause of the colic - peanuts can cause the gassiness. Also, the recipe I was looking for is called gerry ann's recipe - basically you pump on one side while simultaneously feeding the baby on the other side for the first morning feed between 5 and 8 am when supply is highest. Thanks for all your help!
RECIPE??? I am not sure I get the question. I just started pumping and freezing. Breast feed my twins and worked full time for a year. Once they didn't eat at 10 pm, I still pumped at 10 pm to get ahead, etc. Milk good for 5 months in the freezer, longer in a deep freeze.
You have a great question! What I did (and it seemed to work great) was every time I fed the baby, I would feed him on one side and pump the other side. That stimulated my body to make more milk. Then, when I had 4oz. I would freeze it. I would also pump at night when he would wake up to eat, just the same as I did during the day. I found that I had a lot more milk at night. I started this, 3-4 weeks before going back to work and I had about 40+ bags in the freezer. I hope this helps!
I would recommend changing your diet. Gassiness comes from sugar, certain veggies and fruit. Also, dairy can cause a lot of gass and discomfort for a baby who is nursing. I have two children, one who is 18 months old and the other who is 2 weeks old.... My daughter was nursed for 12 months and we plan to do the same for our son. We had a lot of trouble with gassiness and when I changed my diet... it helped a ton. Also, there are infant gas relief drops that work like magic from Little Tummies. If that doesn't help, you can try to mix a little bit of Similac sensitive( orange container) formula in with your breast milk.
If your looking to increase your milk production.... think carbs!! Drinking poweraid helps, eating wheat helps (Cheerios ceral, oatmeal cookies, oatmeal ect). There are also herbs you can take that will increase milk productions such as feunerik. You can purchase this at the little miracles store inside the mercy west hospital. They also have a mothers milk tea that stimulates milk production that is very very good.
My mother in law also recommends that drinking a beer a day will help increase milk flow. I asked my doctor about this as I though for sure this was a myth. To my surprise he also recommends drinking a half a beer a day if your having trouble with milk production. There is something in the yeast of the beer that stimulates production and its not harmful to the baby. I wouldn't recommend getting drunk but a few sips of a beer to a half bottle of beer will hurt the baby. Good luck
You've received a lot of great tips - I thought I'd pass a long a tip for freezing the milk. The milk storage bags are expensive - in our county, a public health nurse makes a visit after a baby is born to check up on you and to give you some pointers. She advised me to freeze the milk in ice cube trays and then fill up quarter sized freezer bags with the cubes. It was much less expensive than the milk storage bags and was very easy to store and thaw.
Drink some mamas tea for lactating moms. Otherwise eat fatty foods,... helps with the production. When I was breastfeeding I would let my husband feed the baby formula twice a day so that I could pump and then put that in the freezer. Good luck!
Hey S.,
Here is a link to general pumping information.
http://www.llli.org/NB/NBpumping.html
If you want to build up a reserve in the freezer, it's usually best to pump after your first morning feeding. Moms will tend to have a more abundant milk supply in the morning. Your milk supply will increase as your body adjusts to the pumping.
As for the gassiness/discomfort, it could be for a variety of reasons. You can always submit a question on the LLLI website,or find a local group, and they will definitely be able to help you with that issue, and the pumping as well.
Hope that helped,
Limor
What I found that worked really well was the first feeding in the morning I would have my son nurse off one side and then I would pump the other side at the same time. The next morning I would switch sides. It was efficient on time and it produced a lot of milk. I only did it once a day and it didn't really spark an over-production of milk. Once you get yourself "situated" it was pretty easy.
I see you had one response that said when you start back to work you only need to pump as much as they would have eaten. I really found that when I went back to work I wasn't able to pump all that much milk. You don't have the stimulation of your child and you are at work - not the comfort of your home so your environment really does impact your ability - at least it did for me. Stocking up the freezer really did allow my children the benefits for much longer.
Good Luck!
Looks like you've already figured out what you are going to do, but I just had a comment about freezing. My kids did *not* take to frozen breastmilk at all. All you really need to have when you return to work is enough milk for her to drink while you're away, plus maybe one or two extra bottles just for your own peace of mind. (So you don't necessarily need to build up a supply of frozen milk... refrigerated milk lasts for 5-7 days, I believe). While your baby is away from you, then you should pump as often as she feeds so that you can replace the bottles used. This will also keep up your supply when you start giving her bottles several times a day. It's great to have a back-up supply of extra milk (frozen or whatnot), but make sure to start giving her the frozen milk before you return to work so she develops a taste for it. Good luck!
I couldn't pump enough when I returned to work to store so the best time I thought was 6-9-12 weeks maybe and pumping after the baby has finished eating and you could pump about an 45 minutes to an hour later for a bit of time. The baby may eat every 2-3 hours so you'll have an hour or so to recover from the pumping. I stored in plastic bags and medela bottles but you could also use ice cube trays. I hope this is answering your question.
I'm not sure what you mean by "breast pumping recipe". Do you want a recipe for food to help you produce more milk? Or are you just looking for instructions on how to store milk?
FYI- my oldest was really gassy and uncomfortable as a newborn on breast milk. Through some trial and error, we discovered he needed to be on lactose-free formula. Problem solved.
Hi S.,
I'm in the same boat with my 8 week old and I'm starting back to work on Monday, Feb 2. So sad, it goes by so fast. To start building a supply of milk for the freezer I began pumping off the balance after she finished eating once a day. (I didn't want to do to often because I didn't want to increase my supply either.) I'd store the milk in the fridge until I had enough to make a bottle, about 4 1/2oz is my bottle goal, and then I'd freeze it. After a few days of once a day pumping, I changed to twice a day pumping after each feeding. Also, I made sure one of those pumps was after her first morning feed because I always have more milk after the night of lighter feedings. 2 weeks before going back to work I not only pumped the balance twice/day, but also pumped while my hubby gave her a bottle. Those pumps usually gave me more than enough for one bottle. Now I'm pumping twice daily while he gives her 2 bottles and then still pumping off the balance twice daily. I'm pretty happy with the supply I've built up over the last 3 weeks, I've only been doing it 3 weeks. I'm sure I'll waste some at daycare because she's not drinking the whole 4 1/2oz, but I'd rather have more than not enough. I hopes that helps.
